1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens having an image stabilizing function, and an optical device, such as a camera, and a camera system including the lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-258250 proposes an image-stabilizing device in which an image stabilizing unit is returned to its initial position when it is determined that the image stabilizing unit reaches the edge of a region in which the image stabilizing unit can be driven for image stabilization.
In this image-stabilizing device, the initial position is set at a position shifted from the center of an image stabilization range by an estimated amount of movement during exposure.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-181712 proposes an image-stabilizing device (image-stabilizing camera system) in which image stabilization is performed according to past vibration pattern information acquired during image-capturing operations of an operation member.
In the image-stabilizing device disclosed in the first publication, however, when it is determined that the image-stabilizing unit reaches the edge of the range in which it can be driven for image stabilization, the image-stabilizing unit is returned to its initial position shifted from the center of the image stabilization range by the estimated amount of movement during exposure.
For this reason, depending on the estimated amount of movement, the driving stroke in the direction toward the edge of the image stabilization range is decreased by shifting by the estimated amount of movement.
If vibration actually occurs in a direction opposite to the predicted direction, the image stabilization range becomes extremely narrow. Consequently, it is difficult to properly correct vibration.
In the image-stabilizing device disclosed in the second publication, image stabilization control is exerted according to the past vibration pattern information. Therefore, when the image-stabilizing device is used in a situation different from that of the past pattern, a sufficient image-stabilizing performance is not ensured during image capturing.
In order to overcome this problem, selection switches or the like are provided corresponding to a plurality of vibration patterns. However, it is troublesome to operate the selection switches. Further, if the operator fails to perform switching, image-capturing is continued without sufficient image-stabilizing performance.
In the above-described known image-stabilizing devices, power consumption for image stabilization is high, and therefore, battery power tends to be consumed at a high rate.